Torquato Tasso Quotes

La via d'onor della salute è via.

Like as the wind, stopped by some wood or hill,
Grows strong and fierce, tears boughs and trees in twain,
But with mild blasts, more temperate, gentle, still,
Blows through the ample field or spacious plain;
Against the rocks as sea-waves murmur shrill,
But silent pass amid the open main:
Rinaldo so, when none his force withstood,
Assuaged his fury, calmed his angry mood.

Qual vento a cui s'oppone o selva o colle,
Doppia nella contesa i soffj e l'ira;
Ma con fiato più placido e più molle
Per le campagne libere poi spira.
Come fra scoglj il mar spuma e ribolle:
E nell'aperto onde più chete aggira.
Così quanto contrasto avea men saldo,
Tanto scemava il suo furor Rinaldo.

Women have tongues of craft, and hearts of guile,
They will, they will not; fools that on them trust.

Femina è cosa garrula e fallace: Vuole e disvuole; è folle uom che sen fida.

The craftsman is in his own craft beguiled.

Lo schermitor vinto è di schermo.

I'll know his inmost aims and (doubt me not)
extract the guarded mysteries of his mind.

Vantomi in lui scoprir gl'intimi sensi,
E i secreti pensier trargli del petto.

Audace si, ma cautamente audace.

Lovers she hated, though she loved their love.

Amo d' esser amata, odio gli amanti.

She tried to cry out: 'Will you, cruel man,
leave me alone here?' Pain choked off her cry,
and in her heart the plaintive words began
to echo in a yet more bitter sigh.

Volea gridar: dove, o crudel, me sola
Lasci? ma il varco al suon chiuse il dolore:
Sicchè tornò la flebile parola
Più amara indietro a rimbombar sul core.

Armida smiles to hear, but keeps her gaze
fixed on herself, love's labours to behold.
Her locks she braided and their wanton ways
in lovely order marshalled and controlled.
She wound the curls of her fine strands with sprays
of flowers, like enamel worked on gold,
and made the stranger rose join with her pale
breast's native lily, and composed her veil.